Here it is folks! Gentrification, classism, and elitism all in one.
New York City’s economic inequality problem is nothing new, but the physical segregation just approved by city officials proves just how far gone the issue actually is.
Extell Development Company, the firm behind the building of a new shiny high-rise at 40 Riverside Blvd. on the West Side of Manhattan, is creating two separate entrances — one for the wealthy and another for the low-income tenants as part of the city’s affordable housing programs.
This “poor-door” entrance will be situated on the back alley end of the building, while wealthier tenants will receive grade A treatment through the newly built front doors.
Fifty-five of the 219 units in the new luxury building will be marked for low-income renters, which of course the developers will benefit from having in their building. Since Extell will provide a certain amount of affordable units, they will receive some hefty tax breaks, not only saving them money, but also potentially making them as much as $100 million in added floorspace they can build upon.
Talk about making a dime off the backs of the working class.
And if that doesn’t make your blood boil enough, here’s what another fellow poor-door developer David Von Spreckelsen had to say on the matter last year:
“No one ever said that the goal was full integration of these populations,” said David Von Spreckelsen, senior vice president at Toll Brothers. “So now you have politicians talking about that, saying how horrible those back doors are. I think it’s unfair to expect very high-income homeowners who paid a fortune to live in their building to have to be in the same boat as low-income renters, who are very fortunate to live in a new building in a great neighborhood.”
This act of economic segregation is everything from abominable to loathsome and back. The fact that these developers and the city see nothing wrong with it is the even more troubling part.
SOURCE: Business Insider | PHOTO CREDIT: Getty
